Art&Seek is highlighting new music from North Texas every Thursday. Click above to hear me talk with Michael Gomez, who performs as Late Native, for our Music Minute, which airs on KERA FM and KXT 91.7. For more North Texas music, tune in to the KXT Local Show at 7 p.m. on Thursdays. And tell us what you’ve been listening to on Facebook, Instagram or @artandseek on Twitter.

Michael Gomez is Late Native. Photo: Jonathan Camacho

After his long-time band, Room Four, decided to call it quits, musician Michael Gomez launched a solo project called Late Native. Gomez says the name is a statement on feeling new to a place where you’ve always belonged- kind of like starting a solo project when you’re used to performing with a band.

“Initially the prospect of having to do everything by myself was kind of scary,” Gomez said. “But I’ve learned to be comfortable with that.

The name’s also a nod to his indigenous roots – his father’s from the Mexican state of Veracruz.

The latest single from Late Native is called “Downbeat on the Daylight”. The song starts calm, with the sound of birds chirping. Eventually, this gives way to the gentle sound of Gomez’s guitar and his voice singing the lyrics:

Quiet air upon my skin

Meeting me before the world and work begin

On a trail the frost has kissed and left alone

Underneath a canopy unclothed

Photo: Jonathan Camacho

Gomez says he has a theory that we’re all most vulnerable when we first wake up and that the window of time before we pick up our screens for the day always tells the truth. He likes to take those first moments of the morning outdoors and reflect in a clear way. That is what Late Native’s new single “Downbeat on the Daylight” is all about.

“This particular song is just describing that process… just telling the world ‘Hold up. Time out.’ This is my personal time out to go out and let me process things in the natural beauty and letting those ordinary things speak the truth to you, and kind of turning around and then facing the day with it,” Gomez said.

Gomez looks forward to releasing more singles throughout the year as Late Native. Keep up with Late Native and connect on social via the Late Native website.

Got a tip? Email Nilufer Arsala at nferrin@kera.org. You can follow her on Twitter @nillipxi53.